Under Locke

Besides make me cry and yell. No big deal.

"But why?"

So

Because of other people?

What a lame excuse. There was more to that story but whatever he wanted to say, whatever he should have said, he wouldn't.

"If you really hate it, we can find you something else. The bar always needs help, but I don't know about you being around the MC constantly."

“Maybe. You’re not a dick, and Trip is really nice,” I tried to explain to him.

“I’m not a dick to you, and Trip’s nice because he likes you,” So

I sighed and cut into my not-fully-cooked pancake.

“Look, Ris, I’d rather you not quit since you’re right around the corner from me. But you’re a big girl. You’ve been on your own forever now. I can spot you on money, no problem.” He shot me a pointed look. “It’s up to you.”

Damn it, I hated it when reasonable people had reasonable points. Did I really want to ask him for money?

No.

So I blew out a long breath from my lips. “I’ll try my best to put up with him, but if I get arrested for assault, you’re bailing me out of jail. I wouldn’t cut it in the pen.”

My half-brother gri

Like my little brother? My reply was a silent expression that reeked of confusion. I'd pinch Will's nipples if he did something so thoughtless and stupid. The end.

“If he was being a dumbass, you’d give him hell, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, yeah.” Someone had to.

So

I thought about the night before and how he’d asked me for forgiveness. Forgiveness that I only half-assed gave him. Hmm.

So

That was a lie, I did care. At least until I found another job, I'd care. There was always that back-up plan in the form of trampling over what remained of my pride and asking Son for money.

“I can do that,” I told him honestly.

He nodded slowly. “I know you can, Ris.”

With my game plan in mind, I smiled. “You got plans for the day?”

“What do you want to do?”

I batted my eyelashes, which I’m pretty sure still had clumps of mascara on them from the night before, and gri

~ * ~ *

We spent that Sunday afternoon going through So

At least five times I heard him muttering, "Only for you, Ris. Only for you." We managed to go through half of it, quitting only when the mosquitoes got so bad I was whacking a body part every other second.

By the time I came out of the shower, So

I made di

~ * ~ *

“Just leave her on the couch.”

“Bro, that’s fuckin’ uncomfortable.”

Someone sighed but I was still in my loopy, I’m-fighting-to-stay-asleep-world while the two voices spoke from what seemed like dimensions away. My dreamscape, a place that looked just like the park my dad had taken me to every week when he’d been a permanent fixture, was tilting on its axis as the voices outside got louder.

“You’re right. Let me go take a piss, and then I’ll get her up," someone said.

The silence that followed should have made it easier for me to slip back into my dream, but the depression of the cushion under me did the opposite. Two arms slipped beneath me, one spa

My eyes cracked open to see that I was being carried down the hallway of So

I tilted my head up, blinking slowly to take in the person carrying me. Hair so dark it that couldn't be Trip. But the high cheekbones and hard angle of a jaw were all I needed to realize that it was Dex.

Dex!

“What are you—,“ I started to yawn, fighting the closing pull of my eyes.

"Go back to sleep," he murmured under his breath without even moving his lips.

He didn’t look down at me when he stopped at the closed bedroom door or when he opened it by putting my butt on what I imagined was a raised knee. Dex finally looked down when he was setting me on the mattress gently. He didn’t smile or wait for me to ask why he was putting me to bed.

He took a step back in my super dark room and whispered, “Night, Ritz,” before closing the door and leaving me in there alone.

If I would have been less tired, I probably would have wondered what the hell was going on instead of falling right back asleep, but I wasn’t, and trying to figure out Dex’s actions wasn’t something a half-asleep brain, much less a fully competent one, could handle.

Chapter Eight

When I got up the next morning, I was seriously asking myself what the hell had happened the night before.

I knew it couldn’t have been a dream. Dex The Dick carrying me to my room had happened.

It. Had. Happened.

And I couldn’t understand for the life of me why A) he’d been at So

I could have walked or at least stumbled my way to bed.

It being Monday, my brother was at work by the time I woke up. Di

Hallelujah.

Limited by the lack of funds in my account until payday, I had to settle for the free things life had to offer. Like laying around the house, watching television, going through catalogues So

In the middle of it, I sent Will another email. It’d been more than a month since the last time I’d talked to him but that wasn’t completely unheard of. In the past year, I'd only gotten to see him a total of a week's worth. I should have been a seasoned professional at keeping calm when I didn’t get anything from him but the fact was, I worried about Will every day.

He was my little brother. The boy I'd cared for like he was mine, before and after our mom had died. He was the reason why I learned what working a double was, the reason why I'd worked two jobs even while I was sick, and the reason for so many other things I learned.

A lot of times I felt like I was alive just for him. And then he'd joined the Army and left me in Florida. I mean, he was happy and that's what mattered but it still didn't fix the fact that I missed him.